Lingo24
 | |
| Independent | |
| Industry | Translation |
| Founded | September, 2001 |
| Headquarters | Edinburgh, United Kingdom |
Area served | Global |
| Revenue | £5m (2010) |
| Owner | Christian Arno |
Number of employees | 140 |
| Slogan | Love your language |
| Website | Lingo24.com |
Lingo24 is a UK-registered translation company that was formed in 2001.
History & Overview
Lingo24 was founded as an online translation company by Oxford University languages graduate Christian Arno, from his parents' Aberdeen home in September 2001.[1] Jack Waley-Cohen then joined as Operations Director in 2003 and the company launched its New Zealand operation,[2] followed by China in 2004, Romania in 2005, Panama in early 2008 and Edinburgh later the same year.[3]
In 2011, Lingo24 opened an Asian hub in Cebu City, the Philippines.[4] Later that year it appointed Mark Slobbe as Director of Americas, based in New York, to expand its business in North and South America.[5]
Lingo24 expanded its European operations with the opening of an office in Nuremberg, Germany, in May 2012.[6] The company opened an office in Greater Manchester in January 2013, in addition to its existing UK offices in Edinburgh and London. [7]
Now with around 200 employees around the globe and a network of over 4,000 translators, Lingo24’s turnover in 2012 was more than £7m GBP.[1][3]
Awards
The company was named as the best e-business start-up in Scotland in 2002[8] and Arno won the Shell LiveWire ‘Young Entrepreneur of the year’ competition in 2003.[1][3] He was also a finalist in the Scotsman Entrepreneur of the year Award at the National Business Awards for Scotland, 2009.[9]
In December 2009, Lingo24 won two awards at the inaugural HeraldScotland.com Digital Business Awards, one in the 'Export' category and one in 'Business to Business'.[10]
In March 2010, it was announced that Lingo24 won two awards, a Customer King Award from Cisco,[11] and one at the International Trade Awards for the Scotland Region, which was sponsored by HSBC.
Lingo24 was nominated as one of the regional finalists in HSBC's Business Thinking initiative, culminating in company founder Christian Arno going on a thought-exchange trip to Istanbul in September, 2010.[12] Lingo24 eventually won the HSBC Business Thinking final following an awards ceremony in Edinburgh on Tuesday 26 October.[13]
Lingo24 was placed on the Times International Track 100 in 2011,[14] making it the fastest-growing translation company in the UK. It reported international sales growth of 57 per cent in the previous two years.
In October 2012, Lingo24 won an Excellence Award at the TAUS User Conference (Seattle) for its new Coach translation technology platform. [15] Later that year, the company appointed Professor Andy Way to lead its new Machine Translation team, based near Manchester. [16]
Web Piracy Issues
On Wednesday 23 December 2009, it was reported by the BBC that the entire Lingo24 website had been copied by another translation company established in China, called 'Universecy'. They managed to get Universecy to take the website down.[17]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Press and Journal, Talking Language of Business, 4 February 2009
- ↑ Financial Times, Spare Room is Hub of Global Network, 3 March 2006
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Shell LiveWire Case Study, Christian Arno (Lingo24)
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- ↑ Scottish Enterprise, Lingo24 Goes Global, 21 November 2004
- ↑ National Business Awards for Scotland, 2009
- ↑ HeraldScotland.com, Digital Business Awards: 2009
- ↑ Times Online, Scottish Agenda
- ↑ HSBC Business Thinking Blog, Christian Arno:Lingo24
- ↑ Yahoo! News, Lingo24 Wins HSBC Business Thinking Award
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- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/scotland_video_and_audio/8428062.stm BBC Website Web pirates steal site design